tion, &c. I shall say nothing respecting this as applied to wheat seed, but ex facie of his account of Carrots there must be some mistake. 1st. Carrots which are not thinned for two months, and at the same time cover the ground so well that weeds cannot shew themselves, will be of very small size indeed. Having a little experience in carrot culture in the field, I find, it necessary to thin them, even in this much more northern climate, in five weeks at farthest from the time they appear above ground. 2dly. The quantity said to be produced is stated on such loose terms, that the experiment can be of no use. What is his cart load? What his acre? Eleven cart loads of 18 or 20 cwt. if such were the weight, is a very trifling crop per English acre. I raised last season at the rate of 40 cart loads, each weighing as above, on the Scots acre, larger than the English. If this be acceptable, you may publish it on the authority of a Mid Lothian Farmer. Sir, IRISH AND ENGLISH BULLS. To the Editor of the Athenæum. IT is generally supposed, that the Irish surpass all other European nations in the facility with which they execute that bizarre species of composition, queerly denominated a bull. Dr. Gregory, in the Introduction to his Philosophical and Literary Essays, p. 149, has endeavoured to account for this offspring of Erebus and Nox, by considering it "in whatever nation or language it may occur, as the extreme case, or ne plus ultra of inaccurate and imperfect thinking." In his view of this subject he seems to divide bulls into two classes: 1. The imperfect bull. 2. The bull perfect in all its parts. Under these articles he has given us some curious specimens. I shall not enter here into an examination of his doctrine, or that of any other man, on this merry subject, but simply request your permission, Sir, to add two bulls to all preceding collections, which properly belong to the second division, or those perfect in all their parts. The first is of pure Irish growth, for in a case of this kind Ireland is allowed the precedency; and the second is a genuine English production, and saw the light for the first time so lately as yesterday. A gentleman having occasion to make a short rural excursion a few miles from a celebrated city in the KINGDOM, saw on his left a genteel house, in a delightful situation, and being desirous to know to whom it belonged, thus addressed a labourer on the other side of the hedge: GENT. "Pray, friend, can you inform me who lives in yonder house?" LAB. "Patrick Fitzgibbon, Sir, lives there, but he's dead." GENT. "Dead! Pray how long is it since he died?" LAB. "Why indeed, Sir, if it had pleased God that he had lived till the morrow he would have been dead just three weeks." Now, Sir, this is a bull, which, following the Gregorian division, is, perfectum, expletumque omnibus suis numeris & partibus; and I should have considered it at the head of all its species, were it not for the following, which, as it proceeds from the metropolis of Britain, and has an unparalleled consistency throughout, must be allowed to surpass every thing hitherto produced by the thirty-two Irish counties. It is a literal transcript of a letter sent to a gentleman who had recommended a patient to that excellent institution called the London Electrical Dispensary. To Mr. G Sir, No. 5081. HAVING by your recommendation been received a patient at the LONDON ELECTRICAL DISPENSARY, and being discharged this day dead, I beg leave to return my humble and hearty thanks for the same. March 10, 1807. Except the No. date, and the word dead, which are written, all the rest of the letter is printed. Having no doubt but several of your readers will be highly gratified with these two specimens, I chearfully communicate them, and am, Sir, very respectfully, yours, London, March 11, 1807. An Admirer of Scientific Eccentricities. *We must take the liberty of demurring as to the genuineness of this supposed bull, at least as far as relates to the phrase "the-morrow," since this appears to us to have been used as synonymous with "the next day." Editor. ON GRAMMATICAL INACCURACY. To the Editor of the Athenæum. Sir, AS perspicuity is one of the first requisites in style, it is surprising to find so many of our first-rate modern authors adopt a mode of expression, in one particular, which is always more or less productive of the contrary effect. It would be easy to adduce instances almost innumerable; but one is sufficient to exemplify my meaning, which I select, as the last to which my attention has been called-not, by any means, as the most forcible I could mention. "Had he designed to have represented," &c. Now, Sir, it appears to me to contradict common sense, that any person should design to do any thing in time past; or that an action should precede the design which gave birth to it; yet, upon stating it to the author as an oversight, he answered, that as one of the verbs was in the preterit, the other should be so too. But, highly as I respect the judgment which dictated this decision, which also, I must conclude, is concurred in by all those who adopt the same expression, my mind still retains its conviction, that it detracts from the perspicuity and elegance of their works; and I have an opinion of great respectability on my side: See Dr. Lowth's Introduction Introduction to English Grammar, page 111, at note 3d, where what He remarks appears to me to be so strikingly just, as to require only attention to its purport to produce conviction. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, A. A. B. Sir, March 19, 1807. PASSAGE IN MILTON, To the Editor of the Athenæum. I HAPPENED a short time ago to be present in a company where the question was started, "Who was the Sister of Prince Memnon, mentioned by Milton in Il Penseroso?" Every one was puzzled. Newton's Milton was referred to, but in vain: a note on the passage informed us of the history of Prince Mennon himself, which we all knew perfectly well before, but not a word was said of his sister. One of us recollected to have read in the ancient "Universal History," that he had a sister named Hemera, but nothing further is recorded of her there, nor, it should seem, in any other work, except the spurious Dictys. On carefully reconsidering Milton's lines, however, two remarks were suggested, which appeared satisfactory to all present, and may, perhaps, be new to many of your readers and those of Milton, Permit me to quote the passage. Whose saintly visage is too bright Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended." Melancholy is here represented, it was first observed, as a negro, for what else can be implied by the words "O'erlaid with black?” and why otherwise should Prince Memnon's sister and Cassiope, both Ethiops, have been brought in illustration? Her complexion was black indeed, says the poet, but such a black as would become a princess of Ethiopia, or that beautiful queen who dared to prefer her charms to those of the sea-nymphs. pur Every one admitting such to be the meaning of the passage, we all agreed, in the second place, that it was wholly unimportant to the pose of our poet whether or not Prince Memnon ever had a sister, and that this was a point which he very probably had never employed himself in considering. Had a painter made one in our little group of critics, he would certainly have exclaimed against the picture here drawn by the poet :-An Ethiop, VOL. I. All in a robe of darkest grain 3 Q is is indeed a figure that defies the pencil. Milton, however, was not the first poet who took up the cause of jetty skins, for thus sings Ovid in the person of Sappho: Candida si non sum, placuit Cepheïa Perseo Et variis alba junguntur sæpe columbæ ; Tasso, too, speaking of the mother of Clorinda, says, L. A. Sir, ON FRENCH METRE. To the Editor of the Athenæum. OCCASIONAL comments on the subject of recent publications being not inadmissible, according to its prospectus, within the fimits of your well-planned and excellent Miscellany, I am more confidently induced, by this circumstance, to offer a slight remark on a work of this nature, which may otherwise, from the attention it has excited, be the means, in this one instance, of misleading a considerable portion of its readers. I allude, Sir, to the interesting volume of Mr. Payne Knight, on the subject of "Taste;" in p. 52 of which the author, treating of English and French metre, gives it as his opinion, that the first line of Voltaire's Henriade is essentially the same as a parallel English quotation which he brings forward, according to the following examples: Je chante le héros qui regna sur la France, Et par droit de conquête et par droit de naissance. Thus said to my lady the knight full of care. Voltaire, H. 1. Swift, Hamilton's Bawn. The first of these lines, according to Mr. K. is the same in metre as the third; but this is only a proof of the misinformation that is prevalent, even among well-educated persons, concerning the true rhythm of the French language, and the power of the French feminine e. The fact is, that the e in chante should be pronounced similarly to that of the preposition de, and forms an additional syllable, so that the word chante corresponds with its etymon canto. The beauty of which common readers are deprived, by this ignorance, in many beautiful verses, is truly lamentable; and there are scarcely three successive lines in any Gallic poet in which this feminine e does not occur, and wherein, by an insensibility of its effect, the line is not mangled. In a small treatise on French prosody, by Mr. D. Durand, we find that "si nos monosyllabes croissent d'un e muet, le mot s'allonge d'une espece de demi-syllabe:" and, to exemplify my assertion, I shall quote a few lines, in which the rhythm is materially damaged, without proper attention to this circumstance: The The French heroic metre consists of twelve syllables; and, in the subsequent verses, I have noted the feminine e with a, the sign of a syllable short in quantity; and your readers will readily perceive that, by the usual mode of reciting, the length of the verse is defecLive. En vain pour gagner tems dans ses transes affreuses, Si je pense exprimer un auteur sans défaut, Id. Sat. 3. Boileau Despréaux. We will now try a metre of eight syHables. Charles, nos plus rares esprits, Sans consulter Muret ou Lipse;" Maynard. When two vowels meet together, one is generally elided; but this is not always the case, as may be perceived by the subsequent example, to which others might easily be added. Lui donna chez les Grecs cettě hauteur divine. Boil. A. Poes, can. 3, It is apparent, from these quotations, that in words derived from the Latin, the number of syllables will be frequently found to correspond with that of the original word: as, syllabes, uně, rares, &c. In fact, the rhythm which Mr. K. assigns to the stately heroic, is precisely analogous to that of A cobler there was, and he liv'd in a stall;' and I am persuaded, that all those who regulate their perusal of the French classics according to this simple rule, will derive a manifest and advantageous increase of pleasure in their studies; and the harmony which the preceding verses display, when properly scanned, will, I flatter myself, be sensible to any ear that is tolerably well formed by classical and elegant literature. The motives which I have stated must plead my excuse for trou bling you thus at length with the present observations from, Sir, yours, respectfully, Nav. W. April 3, 1807. REMARKABLE RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY, For the Athenæum. THEY who attend to the propensity of the human mind to superstition, and the zeal and pertinacity with which opinions are maintained that are anywise associated with objects of passion, will be readily cured of any fears which temporary circumstances may have excited, concerning the general prevalence of indifference or disbelief in matters of religion. History abounds with examples, even |